What were your favorite toys or stories or movies growing up? What lessons did these things provide? Did they reinforce or promote certain gender roles or expectations? What influence did these things have in your life?
How does your proposed idea compare to your childhood favorites? Is it important that toys or stories or movies be inclusive or gender neutral? How important is for children to be exposed to STEM or positive gender roles/expectations at an early age?
(it’s cool that a girl narrated this video; how stereotype-defying)
When I was 4 years old, my father bought me this exact electronic toy set. It was like lego blocks with wires and electronic components in them, and it came with a helpful illustrated booklet with some 50 simple circuit diagrams. I had no idea what AC or DC means, neither did I know how the tiny light bulbs work, but by following the instructions in the booklet, I was able to make a light bulb glow. I was ecstatic.
This set accompanied me for many years, until I moved across the country to live with my mother. By that time, I was able to read some simple circuit diagrams, and could build simple structures like a doorbell without consulting the booklet. I knew that electricity flows from the “plus” side to the “minus” side, and that if you put two bulbs in a row, both of them go dimmer. These knowledge eventually helped me greatly in middle school—in physics class, when my classmates were struggling to understand how those tiny electrons flow through the wires, I was drawing diagrams and designing complex circuits, as my teacher stood in awe.
It did reinforce the “boys like lego” stereotype that my parents bought this set for me, and that I enjoyed the electronic toy set; but I learned a lot from it, which helped me one way or another in my life. Even today, I still have an obsession over toys—I have an Infinite Tree in my dorm room, and I change its pattern every few days as a creative exercise.
But it’s important for toys to be gender-neutral, because they give all children an opportunity to discover what they like, which may set the course for their future development. Especially with STEM-promoting toys; if these toys are gender-neutral, maybe more girls will be able to gain an understanding of the STEM fields at an early age, which may help solve the gender imbalance in today’s tech world in the long run.
For our project, our industrial designer Meghan took the lead in designing a gorgeous set of toy blocks, “DecoBlocks.” We were extra careful balancing stereotypical gender roles: any child can use the set to build both 3-dimensional structures and 2-dimensional patterns, and the colors we used are largely gender-neutral—both boys and girls will enjoy building with these blocks.
They aren’t as high-tech as my electronic block set, but they appeal to the more creative side of me. I know that by playing with it, I’ll be able to get a better hold of shapes, patterns, and structures, which would benefit both my art/design and engineering sides.
The best part of toys and games is that they educate people subconsciously. When we play, we’re actively engaged and highly sensitive to the information we learned; and even if we fail, we wouldn’t second guess our own abilities. Why isn’t classroom education more like play?
Conundrum 